Witness Protection - how does it work?

[HeyJudeNanananana]

Just been reading the thread about Thomas Cashman, and it got me thinking about Witness Protection and how it actually works.

Do you get moved to the other side of the country with a new identity? What about jobs etc?

Would your family get told or get to come with you? It must be incredibly difficult!

Yes, I know there is Google, I have had a look but just thought I would put my random Sunday evening ponderings on here.

It was clearly tongue in cheek. You can be offended at every passing comment if you really want to but that's not a fun way to live

I always think of the boring stuff. NI contributions, are they credited to the new name. What if you have paid into a pension scheme, credit rating and mundane things like insurance no claims you’ve built up.
I think Karen Matthews was moved to near where I used to live. If newspaper reports were to be believed she had a job as a carer. Didn’t seem quite appropriate.

What I've never understood is why isn't the witness' whole family at risk? If I'm being threatened and then disappear into witness protection, why wouldn't whoever was threatening me just threaten e.g. my sister? Presumably the whole extended family can't be put in witness protection but presumably a lot of people wouldn't be a witness if it meant their mum/ niece/ grandad etc could be at risk?

Fucking hell....

Yep! I'd want the whole family coming with me!

mother and three children

‘Inconvenient’ is one word for it…it was actually hugely frightening and upsetting but of course necessary.

The police 100% used the press to engage with the offender/his protectors. I know this because one day the FLO was at our house and forgot her notebook when she left. I phoned her as soon as I noticed and she came flying back but not before I’d had a good look through and there were so many things she’d not told us but that we’d seen in the press. Turned out our FLO was pregnant (early stages and feeling dreadful) which is why she was absentminded. She was shitting it when she reappeared but I never told her I’d looked at her notes.

I wasn’t massively impressed with either of our FLO’s but they loved working with us because we were a much nicer demographic than most of their families, apparently.

I’ve namechanged for this for obvious reasons. I have worked with a few families in witness protection (actually known as ‘protected persons’

In all cases they testified against a high level member/s of an organised crime gang (OCG). The actual running of the scheme is done by a special unit within the NCA. Everything is changed, names, NI numbers, DOBs. They do make sure you have as similar lifestyle as you had before. If you were in a regulated profession you’re unlikely to be able to continue in this as eg being a doctor would be too easy to trace or uncover inconsistencies in eg where you went to university and trained.

one of them like a PP was a child testifying against their father in an abuse case.

I had access to their old and new identities and everything had to be kept totally separate, paperwork in different buildings in locked rooms in safes.

Most scarily of all when I met one to interview them for an investigation they were escorted by armed officers to a neutral location as anything linking to their old life required that level of protection.

They were very brave people.

Nimbostratus100 · Today 21:31
In the case I mentioned, it was a family of 4, and they all had new names, and were not allowed to call each other by their old names, or speak in their original language.

Presumably they spoke the language of the country to where they were relocated as otherwise it would be impossible to enforce that rule.

@Nimbostratus100 i wonder if it’s the same family I worked with?

HeyJudeNanananana · Today 21:16
If you meet a new partner it must be hard living on a lie as well.

It must be virtually impossible not to let some details slip and remember to be completely consistent with the new life story. Also, what about if they bump into someone from the old days? Even if they move to the other end of the country that can happen - we bumped into some people from the next village in a hotel in the Atlas Mountains.

What an idiotic thing to write.

Thanks, yes I was being tongue in cheek, i obviously didn’t mean I want to witness a murder, I meant more like someone stealing something expensive…. Not wishing harm on anyone of course

I think we can see comment from crapbucket was tongue in cheek.
Hollywood has a whole genre of film about people in hiding/witness protection often for laughs. Sister Act anyone?
yes in the real world awful, but wondering about a fantasy side of things a la the movies is just the sort of idle thing one might wonder on MN.

maybe! I have no idea how many families like this there are in the uk, I hope they are doing well, bless them

@Nimbostratus100 me too! I didn’t know them well but they were lovely kids.

Thank you yes! I mean no harm by this thread, but when you see the movies and read things in the press about it, you do wonder how the logistics of it work!

The actual emotional side is a given, but the day to day mechanics must be really difficult to maintain!

Theres a comedy on iplayer called witless thats about two women in 'witpro'.

I recommend it. Although i doubt its any way realistic.

I was reading about her the other day. She is a remarkable woman and showed bravery that I hope I'd have in that situation. I hope the woman who helped put away Olivia's killer can also find happiness. Two incredible women.

What happened then?

Did she disappear? And presumably get another new identity?

Pp is right about vast majority of people in witness protection being criminals. It’s not common for ordinary members of the public.

The recent coverage of the Brinks Matt robbery after the new drama talked about the road rage murder by Ken Noye. His victim’s gf went into WP, and another witness was also offered WP after testifying about the same crime and refused. He was gunned down in a supermarket car park 3 months later 😢.

Not my experience
A friend of a friend went through immense violence, threats and harassment from her neighbours and others of their culture. She was on witness protection because they were so horrible. She had to leave her lovely village council house, council accepted them as homeless and put her and her family up in one room in a hotel. Then she had to reapply for a new house for a fresh start. She had to battle hard and enlist letters of support from every agency who was supporting her in some way to the MP to get the housing officer to treat her case as an exception to the policy and allow a direct allocation rather than the bid system. My contribution was to study the housing allocation policy and tell her that this was indeed an option and she should pursue it.

I suspect that's more the reality of witness protection schemes than a new life.

With the witness in the Cashman case I was wondering about an accent. It’s all very well moving to the south coast or something but hard to shake off a broad scouse accent. Would that matter? Would someone be encouraged to try and change their accent or could their backstory just be that they’re from Liverpool and it wouldn’t matter that it makes them stick out a bit? I find it hard to understand how easy it hard it is to just change your identity and ‘disappear’ within the UK and how much of an impact a broad regional accent could have on that.

For all we’re speculating about the interesting aspects of WP I hope this poor brave lady can make a safe new life for herself and I don’t downplay the seriousness of it all, at all.